Growing thoughts

This blog is an attempt at documenting how I'm spending my time mostly for myself, and perhaps for folks interested in sustainability, anti-racism, democracy, bird watching and crafting. It's also an experiment in sharing my professional and personal self together on an online platform.

[juliepouic]

I'm not the only one planting this fall !

I've been doing some fall planting. It's one of the lovely features of the Bay Area that you can grow food year-round.

Last week, I noticed I'm not the only creature "planting" in our garden beds!

The squirrels and blue jays are also burying seeds in the garden. I'm guessing it's to hide them for later, but if I see some baby oaks growing in the spring - I'll know why.

Can you spot the acorn?

[juliepouic]

Racism or ignorance at Chabot Space Center?

I visited the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland for the first time a few weeks ago. It was a lovely spot for my son to play for a couple of hours. He particularly liked the "touch the surface of the sun" exhibit. That section of the museum even had an exhibit dedicated to stories about the sun from cultures around the world which seemed creative for a science museum.

8 different representations of the sun by 8 cultures around the world.

That said, I was appalled that the museum labeled one of the beliefs about the sun as "African" (see #5 below). While every other image was associated with a specific people and culture, through ignorance, racism, or more likely a big dose of both, they decided to lump the hundreds of people and cultures in the African continent into one "African" bucket. Gah!

Based on the description used, it seems that they are actually displaying information about the Akan people, centered in today's Ghana. The Akan people were a matrilineal society which was exciting to learn about.

I'm going to reach out to the museum and encourage them to update their label. Wish me luck!

[juliepouic]

Zero-waste dystopia

The San Francisco airport has ambitious sustainability efforts in place. The roof is covered in solar panels and they have ambitious waste reduction efforts.

For today, I'll skip over the issue of how these efforts compensate for a mere fraction of the impact of flying to focus on the challenge of zero-waste efforts.

I bought a yogurt at the airport but because the airport's zero-waste efforts, there are no trash bins! How am I supposed to properly dispose of this empty plastic container?

What do to? Fly my trash to JFK?

All of the take-out food at the airport is served in compostable packaging but there are also a lot of pre-packaged products that aren't compostable or recyclable (gum wrappers, chocolate bars, fancy nuts, the list goes on...). What are the people supposed to do?

I appreciate the ambition of zero-waste efforts, and how they can push us to go beyond incremental changes. But in many cases, like this one, they end up being counter-productive. Removing the trash cans in the airport is simply creating a contaminated composting waste stream. From a public behavior change perspective, it's teaching us that sustainability is impractical and a lot of work for limited results.

[juliepouic]

The joy of sprouts

A wonderful feature of the Bay Area is that you can grow food year-round. I am deeply pleased with the rainbow chard sprouting in my kitchen window these days! It always feels like magic when small seeds transform into beautiful plants.

[juliepouic]

A step in my personal sustainability journey

I have been on a personal sustainability journey for many years - pretty much since my parents taught me about recycling as a kid and I would in turn badger my friends about recycling. I am amazed at how long, and sometimes un-necessarily arduous, this journey is...

I didn't expect to really learn much when I listened to a recent episode of the podcast A Matter of Degrees focused on personal sustainability. I mostly listened to it because it was recommended on the All We Can Save Project newsletter, and I'm a fangirl of Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and working to learn more about her and her work.

But actually I found this podcast REALLY helpful! Instead of providing a laundry list of actions, it focuses on 2 key areas of action for individuals to take that are most impactful (of course, collective action is critical as well and that's what episodes 2 and 3 in this podcast series are for). What I liked is that it focused on structural changes you can make once, instead of actions that you have to remember to do everyday. Anyways... It boils down to 2 things:

1- Electrify everything in your house

We recently installed a heat pump in our house (thanks to our friend and co-owner who is an energy efficiency engineer). I now want to get an induction stove to replace our gas stove. I didn't realize that gas stoves were so bad for indoor air quality. We'll hopefully get solar panels on the house one of these days as well...

2- Move your money

I didn't realize that for every dollar you have in the bank, the bank can lend $10 out. So even if you don't have huge savings, shifting away from banks that invest in fossil fuels can be really impactful. My friend, and climate finance expert, Marilyn Waite has a wonderful website that lays out an abundance of sustainable banking and investing options. This morning, I worked on moving the money I have invested via my 401k. It was frustrating... My BCG 401k (on the Vanguard platform) only offers only 1 sustainable option (the Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund) and this fund has JP Morgan as one of its top 10 holdings. Why invest in a bank that isn't divested from fossil fuels!? My other 401k is managed by Empower and they offer 2 options: the FTSE Social Index and a Fidelity International Sustainability Index Fund. 1% of that Fidelity fund is invested in the French fossil fuel company Total!? Gah! I'm going to try to get Empower to offer Sphere as an option... I also need to move my savings away from Bank Of America which I'm hoping to finally get done in the next few weeks... Wish me luck!!

There is much delight on the road to a more sustainable lifestyle but aligning my money with my values isn't one of them yet.

[juliepouic]

Gift economies and celebrating Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer just received a MacArthur "genius" grant! I'm so exciting so see her work recognized, and hopefully to see the influence of her work grow! Her book Braiding Sweetgrass is truly wonderful. I'm currently re-reading it for the third time, and it's the book I gift people the most.

I'm currently reading the chapter titled "The Gift of Strawberries" which explores the power of gifts as a basis for an economy, instead of the market. The idea is that gifts are powerful because they create a feeling of obligation for the receiver to give something in turn. Gifts yields more gifts, and thus create an economy of abundance. This economy is made of flows (gifts circulating) whereas the dominant market-based economy is made of stocks (people stockpiling resources) which results in scarcity and inequality.

Picture of wild strawberry by mar gulo on Unsplash

It's hard to come across a lot of modern day example of gift economies. One reason is because of power imbalances (people with lots of money hold lots of power which makes change hard). But perhaps another reason is that it's hard to imagine a different world. For example, people will casually use the phrase "the tragedy of the commons" as a reason for why we can't have a different economic system. But that phrase is completely made up! It's based on a hypothetical example of a British economist in the 1830s that was popularized by a white nationalist ecologist in the 1960s. Eula Biss has a moving and persuasive essay on the topic in the New Yorker.

On the related topic of how trying to control and fence our environment deprives us of abundance: the recent For The Wild episode with Tusha Yakovleva reminded me that we should be grateful for the gift of "weeds". They are abundant, thrive in disturbed soil (which humans are very good at creating), help to build soil and require no work. This is a good reminder for me as I work to get our vegetable garden in Oakland back up and running. Tusha's mentor is Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer - so I'm truly drawing a lot of inspiration from her these days!

The weeds are definitely more alive than the strawberries in my garden right now...

[juliepouic]

Is feedback truly a gift?

I have built part of my professional reputation on being an expert at feedback. Feedback is core to my management style, I've been an advocate for 10:10* everywhere I go and I have a feedback tab in OneNote for every project I've ever worked on.

I was surprised, a bit dismayed but also curious to learn about Carol Sanford's book No More Feedback. I haven't actually read the book (oops!) but heard her discussing it with Tyson Yunkaporta on his podcast The Other Others.

What I found most thought-provoking was the idea that feedback can destroy an individual's ability to know themselves - to trust their own experience and thoughts.

From the Nap Ministry

In addition, feedback can be a tool for control and coercion where one person, with more power, seeks to change another person according so that person's idea of what good is. This makes me think of the white supremacy characteristic of "one right way": the idea that there is only one best way to do things (and your boss knows what it is). This prompted me to re-think my early work experience as a management consultant where I was always frustrated that the feedback I received seemed designed only to make me a more "perfect consultant", and didn't value any of the skills I had that weren't part of the "perfect consultant" check-list.

Does this mean that all feedback is bad? I still think we can learn from the experience of others and I am grateful for the guidance, coaching and feedback I've received over the years.

Perhaps, like many things, feedback is a technology that can be used for good or evil. When it aims to help someone to reach their goals, it can be helpful. When it's about making someone into a better minion, probably less so.

Feedback is a gift, sometimes....

-----

After posting this, I realized there's an important distinction between feedback and accountability. People don't necessarily want to be held accountable, but it's important for the health of a community. So how do you determine if something you hear, that's not aligned with your goals, is feedback or a request for accountability? More pondering required here for sure...

-----

*10:10 is a technique I learned from a colleague at BluSkye, who had learned about it at Bain & Co. The way it works is to schedule a dedicated feedback meeting every 2 weeks with everyone who reports to you / you report to. During the meeting, each person has 10 minutes. You start with a self-assessment (self-props + mistakes / lessons learned), then the other person adds their feedback. It can be a great way to check-in regularly, avoid 'stamp collecting', make time to celebrate accomplishments and coach people to improve.

[juliepouic]

Fauchage Tardif: simple solution for biodiversity

Many of the parks near our house use "fauchage tardif" (late mowing) in the spring. It's such a wonderful technique! It's beautiful - the tall grasses are wonderful, it makes me appreciate what I would normally consider to be "weeds" a whole lot more! It also keeps the parks accessible (paths are mowed in the high grass), takes less maintenance and provides shelter for bugs and small creatures. I wish this was something that happened everywhere!

[juliepouic]

First squirrel I've seen in the garden since moving here!

And then a couple of blackbirds chased it away.

[juliepouic]

Street names: celebrating women in public places

Happy women's history month! Over the past few months, I've been paying more attention to street names. This was prompted by the work of the @CollectifACote in Nantes who installed a number of alternative street names recognizing women alongside the regular street signs. I found this so cool!

They did this because their research shows that only 6,7% of streets in Nantes are named after a woman.

While I was checking out an outdoor graffiti spot in the 13th arrondissement in Paris, I noticed that in that area, the majority of streets were named after women.

Apparently, the city of Paris has been working on increasing the proportion of streets named after women increasing the ratio from 6 to 12%. Still a long way to go to achieve parity but it shows that progress is possible!

[juliepouic]

A modern twist on community organizing

Yesterday, I attended an event organized by the Comité Justice et Verité pour Adama (you can learn more about the Comité Adama and their leader Assa Traoré here). The event - which was in support of the fight against racism and inequality - felt quite different from other activist events I've attended in the past. As I've been reflecting on the experience, I think what felt so unique is that the event effortlessly blended the strategies of mass mobilization (celebrities, artists, social media amplification,...) with the depth of relationships of local community organizing (personal stories, deep relationships,...).

Assa and the Comité have been incredibly successful and resilient. They mobilized 100k people in Paris in support for racial justice in June 2021 (during the BLM worldwide uprisings) for example, and they have kept fighting for justice in the face of brutal retaliation.

I'm wondering if this success is in part because they have created a new way to be activists and a culture that's attractive for many to engage in. Here are some elements that I noticed:

Everyone belongs: people on stage and in the audience were from very different backgrounds, across gender, race and class. There were famous artists in conversation with a philosopher and a comedian for example.

Unapologetic glamour: Assa refuses to be a victim, she is glamorous, and deftly uses social media to amplify her brand and her work.

Positive and fun: the event was filled with music (a Malian band provided a wonderful soundtrack to the event), there were skits by comedians, and the general tone was about possibilities and opening spaces for dreaming - while still recognizing the challenges.

Many paths, one common objective: some speakers laid out clear police reform needs, others called for building narrative power while others encouraged entrepreneurship by people of color. But all were grounded in understanding the systemic nature of racism, and the importance of everyone being able to fully participate in decision-making in our society, without being hindered (or killed) by racism.

Grounded in community: Assa and the Comité have spent time over the years building trusted in-person relationships across communities. They support other victims of police violence, connect with leaders in other movements. Their work also recognizes those that came before, and has a strong sense of history. Instead of trying to build their email list, they filled a theatre with 600 people on a Tuesday evening to laugh, dance and rage together.

While none of these elements are unique in and of themselves, the combination feels powerful. In the past, when I was evaluating movement organizations for funding, I would ask about list size, email open rates, campaign targets and results. In focusing on numbers, I sometimes forgot that culture eats strategy for lunch. Assa and the Comité Adama have creates an organization, and really a community of people, that can adapt, seize opportunities when they arise, and be resilient for the long haul.

Full disclosure: I've been working with Assa on a new project which I hope to share more info about soon.

[juliepouic]

Growing my understanding of criminal justice reform

When I was a business school student, I volunteered for Genepi, an organization that tutors incarcerated people. I was a great experience - and as often happens with volunteer gigs, I learned more than I contributed. While I had held a lot of negative stereotypes about incarcerated people before, this experience made me realize that incarcerated people are full human beings that I have a lot to learn from. I am so embarrassed that this was not obvious to me beforehand. #longjourney

Genepi recently disbanded. Seeing this news was a good opportunity to reflect on what I've learned about the criminal justice system, and what I have yet to understand.

In short, Genepi disbanded because they increasingly saw that tutoring incarcerated people was enabling an unjust system by making it more palatable, not actually driving change.

In their statement about why the organization was disbanding, I was struck by the sentence: "Il a aussi permis à des étudiant-es bourgeois-es de grandes écoles de s’acheter une bonne conscience et de servir leur voyeurisme sous couvert de charité" ("It also allowed bourgeois students of the grandes écoles to buy a good conscience and to serve their voyeurism under the guise of charity"). I think it described my experience pretty well.

Since then, I have found better ways to learn, build empathy and assuage my curiosity by listening to some podcasts. Ear Hustle, Life Jolt and Suave help remind me of everyone's fundamental humanity.

Our criminal justice system, based on revenge, and empowered by racist institutions, needs structural reform. I'm curious to see what the Genepi leaders do next to further this needed change.

P.S. There are a lot of articles online about people's outrage at the organization being shut down. In response, I found this analysis of the evolution of the organization really insightful.

[juliepouic]

2 weeks on a farm

Adam and I spent 2 weeks woofing on a farm in Chambéry, near the French Alps, this summer. It's something I'd always wanted to do but it never quite made sense with limited vacation time. Now that we have a lot of free time (and a lot less cash), volunteering on a farm makes a lot more sense :)

It was a wonderful experience - we spent all of our time outdoors, either going on beautiful hikes on our days off, or working in the field of the Labyrinthe Gourmands. I loved learning how to prune and tutor tomatoes, harvest onions and zucchini and recognize a wide variety of aromatic herbs (lemon basil is my new fav). I despaired at trying to limit the spread of late blight on the tomatoes and the seemingly unending work of hilling potatoes.

We ate really well - the garden produces so much food for us to eat, but I was saddened by how little income the farm was generating. Anne Catherine's goal is not to optimize for income, but rather to produce vegetables for her family to eat but still...

This definitely felt like something everyone should experience - a really deep connection to what it takes to grow the food I sometimes take for granted. It was also a good confirmation that I don't want to be a farmer - I love growing food in my garden but I'm grateful it's not something I HAVE to do, and my income doesn't depend on it.

[juliepouic]

Art and Whiteness

We went to an art opening last night. It was hosted by an art collective called Fabrique POLA. It was really wonderful to plan an excursion into Bordeaux to celebrate the lifting of many COVID restrictions yesterday. It was an open air exhibit, and I really enjoyed a lot of the art.

While the art was great to see, it was more challenging to witness the people dynamic. The overwhelming majority of people at the event were white, even while the mix of people running or walking by were much more diverse. Even more difficult to witness was the Roma encampment across the street from the party. On one side, there were lots of white people partying at an open air bar, drinking expensive beer and wine while across the street, there were Roma people living in run-down trailers with no shade or visible access to power, water or sanitation.

One of the artists had put up a sign right in front of the encampment that read "Given the situation, we won't change anything". This sign was part of a series of signs criticizing government and power structures unwillingness to change (more below). This sign seems to indicate this artists was aware of the injustice of the situation but it's not clear anything to address the injustice was actually being done. And I didn't do anything either and just sipped my beer...

Sitting with my feelings of guilt and shame at my complicity in our racist society is tough. That said, I'm glad I notice these things now rather than being completely oblivious as I used to be. Another step in my long journey towards anti-racism...

"Any alternative would be unrealistic, please do not attempt anything"

"We are working to dominate you, please remain calm"

[juliepouic]

Abundance of plums

It’s plum season and my parents’ backyard tree is covered in plums! They are not super tasty but good for jam so I’ve been experimenting with various recipes. So far I’ve made 3 different batches. Overall, the results are ok but not spectacular given the amount of work that went into harvesting, pitting, cooking and canning the plums. I love the color of the jam - so vibrant! It’s a really nice addition to yogurt and oatmeal.  I skimmed some of the juices in the 3rd batch to keep as a syrup that’s great with sparkling water and might work as a cocktail mixer. But the jam itself is meh: it’s really acidic and doesn’t have great depth of flavor.

The plum is still producing LOTS of fruit and I’m feeling conflicting emotions - I’m sad to let these fruit go to waste, but also want to honor the fact that I made 24 jars of jam already! It’s an interesting reflection on abundance for me - having more than I need is producing some anxiety so I’m trying to focus on how these fruit will feed the birds, and the soil in the backyard, and that’s ok. 

[juliepouic]

How to create a pitch deck for early-stage startups

A few years ago, I wrote a post about how to create a strong pitch deck. I recently shared a slightly edited version with a few entrepreneurs I'm advising and thought it might be helpful to others so I'm posting it here. It's dated but I think the advice still holds up.

Note: The article links to advice written only by men (and mostly white men) but since investors are mostly white men, the biases and blind spots might actually work in your favor... I’ve been thinking quite a bit about advice for pitching as a person of color so I hope to have a post on that topic soon.

How to create a pitch deck for early-stage startups 

A basic pitch deck should follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule – this ensure you include all the important elements of a pitch, without being overwhelming. If you’re looking for details on what should go on each page, one of my favorite posts about pitch decks is Pascal Finette’s What Every Entrepreneur Should Learn About Pitching.

If you already have a deck and need some inspiration to take it to the next level, the links below can help you fine tune your pitch:

Nextview ventures has put together a fairly exhaustive slide deck template, tailored specifically to seed-stage ventures. It’s a great resource, especially if you are not very comfortable with powerpoint.

If you’re looking for ideas on how to tell a story during your pitch, Jason Shen has identified 11 different pitch archetypes and outlined which kinds of startups should use which story outline.

At New Media Ventures, here are the 3 things I cared the most about:

Just enough information. A pitch deck should contain only the essentials. I have limited time to review each deck and would rather be intrigued than overwhelmed. I would also rather have a discussion, and be able to share feedback rather than spend all of the meeting time on listening to a pitch.

Clearly explain what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for. Sounds basic enough, right? This is where I often see entrepreneurs fail. As a founder, you know more about your company than anyone else does, so it can be easy to think you’re being clear when you’re not. User stories can be a great tool for explain what you do: “Meet Maria… Maria is… Maria has this problem… With our solution, she will be able to…”. It’s simple and easy to understand.

Tailored. While you definitely shouldn’t create a deck from scratch for each potential investor, it pays to do your research ahead of time and add some details about how your work aligns with the priorities of the person you're pitching, either in writing or in your voice-over.

Good luck pitching!

For reference, here’s the original post I wrote by in 2015.

[juliepouic]

Representation in local politics

Elections are coming up at the end of the month to elect the government for each Departement and Region in France. I recently received the election mailer from each party that’s running and was sad to see how un-representative of my area it is. 

I laid out the mailers here, putting the candidates furthest on the left of the political spectrum at the top, and the ones further on the right at the bottom. There seems to be reasonable age diversity and half of the candidates are women because it’s now mandated by law. Sadly, only 1 candidate is a person of color (a black woman) and she’s running for a center-right party (though it’s technically un-affiliated). It’s illegal to track race / ethnicity in France so there aren’t statistics about the percent of people of color in my area but I can tell you there are definitely more than 10% (based on who I see dropping off kids at schools, at the market,...).

I’m advising a project of the Luminate Foundation to open routes to political power for communities that have been excluded until now. There’s work to do, that’s for sure!